The Bible

 

Ezekiel 39

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1 And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal;

2 and I will turn thee back, and lead thee, and will cause thee to come up from the uttermost north, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.

3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee: I have given thee to be meat for the birds of prey of every wing, and to the beasts of the field.

5 Thou shalt fall on the open field; for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell at ease in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

7 And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I [am] Jehovah, the holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it cometh, and shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah. This is the day whereof I have spoken.

9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall kindle fire, and burn weapons, and shields, and targets, bows, and arrows, and hand-staves, and spears: and they shall make fires with them seven years.

10 And no wood shall be taken out of the field, neither cut down out of the forests; for they shall make fire with the weapons; and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and plunder those that plundered them, saith the Lord Jehovah.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there for burial in Israel, the valley of the passers-by to the east of the sea; and it shall stop [the way] of the passers-by; and there shall they bury Gog and all the multitude; and they shall call it, Valley of Hamon-Gog.

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land;

13 and all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them for renown in the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord Jehovah.

14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment to go through the land, who, with the passers-by, shall bury those that remain upon the face of the land, to cleanse it: at the end of seven months shall they make a search.

15 And the passers-by shall pass through the land, and when [any] seeth a man's bone, he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-Gog.

16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Speak unto the birds of every wing, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves together and come, assemble yourselves on every side to my sacrifice which I sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.

18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, [and] of bullocks, all of them fatted beasts of Bashan.

19 And ye shall eat fat till ye are full, and drink blood till ye are drunken, of my sacrifice which I sacrifice for you.

20 And ye shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord Jehovah.

21 And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed, and my hand which I have laid upon them.

22 And the house of Israel shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God from that day and forward.

23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful against me; and I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so that they fell all of them by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I did unto them, and I hid my face from them.

25 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name:

26 and they shall bear their confusion, and all their unfaithfulness in which they have acted unfaithfully against me, when they shall dwell safely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;

27 when I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations.

28 And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God, in that I caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

29 And I will not hide my face any more from them, for I shall have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #939

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939. The fact that seeing the Lord's face does not mean seeing His face, but knowing and acknowledging Him as He is in respect to His Divine attributes, of which there are many, and that people conjoined with Him by love know Him and in that way see His face, can be seen from the following passages:

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me... ...When you come to see the face of Jehovah... (Isaiah 1:11-12)

My heart said..., "Seek my face. Your face, Jehovah, I am seeking." (Psalms 27:8)

We will shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His face with confession. (Psalms 95:1-2)

My soul thirsts... for the living God. When shall I come to see the face of God? ...yet shall I confess to Him the salvation of His countenance. (Psalms 42:2, 5)

They shall not see My face empty-handed. (Exodus 23:15)

...to come... to placate the face of Jehovah. (Zechariah 8:21-22, cf. Malachi 1:9)

Make Your face shine upon Your servant. (Psalms 31:16)

Who will show us any good? Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, Jehovah. (Psalms 4:6)

They shall walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 89:15)

...O God, cause Your face to shine, that we may be saved! (Psalms 80:3, 7, 19)

God be merciful to us and bless us. May He cause His face to shine upon us. (Psalms 67:1)

Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you; Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

You hide them in the secret place of Your countenance... (Psalms 31:20)

You have set... our hidden secret in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 90:8)

(Jehovah) said (to Moses), "My countenance will go... (Moses) said..., "If Your countenance does not go..., do not bring us down from here." (Exodus 33:14-15)

The bread on the table in the Tabernacle was called [literally] "the bread of faces" (Exodus 25:30, Numbers 4:7).

[2] We are often told, too, that Jehovah hid His face or turned His face away, as in the following:

...for (their) wickedness I have hidden My face from (them). (Jeremiah 33:5, cf. Ezekiel 7:22)

Your sins have hidden (God's) face from you... (Isaiah 59:2)

The face of Jehovah... will no longer regard them. (Lamentations 4:16)

(Jehovah) will hide His face from them..., according as they have made their works evil. (Micah 3:4)

You hid Your face... (Psalms 30:7, cf. 44:24; 104:29)

I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them... I will surely hide My face... because of all the evil which they have done... (Deuteronomy 31:17-18)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 8:17; Ezekiel 39:23, 28-29; Deuteronomy 32:20.

[3] In an opposite sense, the face of Jehovah symbolizes anger and aversion, because an evil person turns away from the Lord, and when he turns away, it seems to him as though the Lord had turned away and was angry, as is clear from the following passages:

...I have set My face against this city for its evil... (Jeremiah 21:10, cf. 44:11)

I will set My face against that man and... devastate him... (Ezekiel 14:7-8)

I will set My face against them... and... fire shall devour them..., when I set My face against them. (Ezekiel 15:7)

...(he) who eats any blood, I will set My face against that soul... (Leviticus 17:10)

At the rebuke of Your countenance they perished. (Psalms 80:16)

The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil... (Psalms 34:16)

...I send an angel before you... Beware of his face..., for he will not endure your transgression. (Exodus 23:20-21)

Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from Your countenance. (Numbers 10:35)

(I saw one sitting on the throne) from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. (Revelation 20:11)

That no one can see the Lord as He is in Himself, as we said above, is apparent from the following:

(Jehovah said to Moses,) "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:18-23)

That people nevertheless saw the Lord and lived, because He appeared by means of an angel, is apparent from Genesis 32:30, 1 Judges 13:22-23, 2 and elsewhere.

Footnotes:

1. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

2. Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!" But his wife said to him, "If Jehovah had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.